Oct 24, 2021 10:56 PM
(This post was last modified: Oct 25, 2021 07:11 PM by C C.)
https://bigthink.com/life/linguistic-laws-biology/
KEY TAKEAWAYS: There are various laws of linguistics, such as common words being shorter than less common words. These laws apply not only to human language but communication among animals, as well. Most amazing, though, is that these rules appear just about everywhere, from species distribution and size to disease outbreaks to the structure of proteins.
EXCERPTS: Linguists have known for quite some time that certain “laws” seem to govern human speech. For instance, across languages, shorter words tend to be more frequently used than longer words. Biologists have taken notice, and many have wondered if these “linguistic laws” also apply to biological phenomena. Indeed, they do, and a new review published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution elaborates on their discoveries.
The first linguistic rule concerns the frequency of the most used words in a language. It is known as “Zipf’s rank-frequency law”, and it maintains that “the relative frequency of a word is inversely proportional to its frequency rank.” In other words, the most frequently used word will be twice as common as the second most frequent word, three times as common as the third most frequent, and so on. [...] The incredible thing is that this law applies also to a whole range of non-linguistic things...
[...] The second linguistic rule we can apply to life is known as “Zipf’s law of abbreviation,” which “describes the tendency of more frequently used words to be shorter.” [...] It is also a law seen all over nature...
[...The third...] Let’s take a sentence, like this one, with all it’s words, long and short, strung together, punctuated by commas, nestled in with each other, to reach a final (and breathless) finale. What you should notice is that although the sentence is long, it is divided into pretty small clauses. This is known as “Menzerath’s law,” in which there is “a negative relationship between the size of the whole and the size of the constituent part.” It is seen not only in sentence construction; the law applies to the short phonemes and syllables found in long words. ... As with the previous laws, it is observed in most languages but is perhaps not as widespread. There are several counterexamples, but not nearly enough to discredit the general principle. In nature, it is well documented.
[...] While the paper focuses largely on these three laws, it hints at others that might yet be found... (MORE - missing details)
KEY TAKEAWAYS: There are various laws of linguistics, such as common words being shorter than less common words. These laws apply not only to human language but communication among animals, as well. Most amazing, though, is that these rules appear just about everywhere, from species distribution and size to disease outbreaks to the structure of proteins.
EXCERPTS: Linguists have known for quite some time that certain “laws” seem to govern human speech. For instance, across languages, shorter words tend to be more frequently used than longer words. Biologists have taken notice, and many have wondered if these “linguistic laws” also apply to biological phenomena. Indeed, they do, and a new review published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution elaborates on their discoveries.
The first linguistic rule concerns the frequency of the most used words in a language. It is known as “Zipf’s rank-frequency law”, and it maintains that “the relative frequency of a word is inversely proportional to its frequency rank.” In other words, the most frequently used word will be twice as common as the second most frequent word, three times as common as the third most frequent, and so on. [...] The incredible thing is that this law applies also to a whole range of non-linguistic things...
[...] The second linguistic rule we can apply to life is known as “Zipf’s law of abbreviation,” which “describes the tendency of more frequently used words to be shorter.” [...] It is also a law seen all over nature...
[...The third...] Let’s take a sentence, like this one, with all it’s words, long and short, strung together, punctuated by commas, nestled in with each other, to reach a final (and breathless) finale. What you should notice is that although the sentence is long, it is divided into pretty small clauses. This is known as “Menzerath’s law,” in which there is “a negative relationship between the size of the whole and the size of the constituent part.” It is seen not only in sentence construction; the law applies to the short phonemes and syllables found in long words. ... As with the previous laws, it is observed in most languages but is perhaps not as widespread. There are several counterexamples, but not nearly enough to discredit the general principle. In nature, it is well documented.
[...] While the paper focuses largely on these three laws, it hints at others that might yet be found... (MORE - missing details)
